Most employers implement a background check to include employment verification, education confirmation and criminal record searches, but there are other searches that can also protect your organization from hiring the wrong employees.
Case study: The manager trainee who was a fraud
A publicly-traded company contacted KlinkCheck with concerns regarding their Chief Operating Officer (COO), who had been on the job about one year. The COO, who was making $1 million+ a year, had been hired through a well-known executive search firm. The COO had an impeccable resume and had supposedly undergone an intensive background check, but he was struggling with his job responsibilities to a point where it was causing severe damage to his employer. The board of the company contacted us and asked us what they could do about this COO.
Less than one hour after our investigation began, it was discovered that the COO was a fraud. Research conducted of media records revealed that the COO's only business experience was that he had recently completed a management trainee course before being hired by our client.
The last thing any employer wants to do is have a fraudster occupy such a high position within its organization. A brief media search would have protected this employer. Most white collar fraud matters never become criminal cases but often, media searches can uncover valuable data.
Screening tools
Alternative resources
Background checks should not always contain the basics (i.e. criminal, education and employment research). When hiring executive and high profile employees, alternative resources can help ensure that you are hiring the best person for the job. These types of searches are only valuable when the right data is matched with the correct applicant. Skilled researchers, like the professionals at KlinkCheck, identify the correct records for the correct applicants. Please note that many Google and other web searches often yield incorrect data and should never substitute a full media search.
Media
Not a Google search. A proper media search involves research and analysis of local and national media including major U.S. newspapers and magazines, trade publications, websites and newswires. This research is designed to confirm information on an applicant's resume or application, but it can also highlight any concerns of unethical conduct or shed light on issues that never reached the courts.
Conflicts of interest through corporate ownership records
Employers can determine other business interests of the applicant or close relatives. This is a vital tool when evaluating those who can spend corporate dollars.
Litigation records
You can identify fraud and/or other misconduct in lawsuits.
Bankruptcy and credit reports
Are your new employees going to have access to bank information? Do they have purchasing power or large expense accounts? (Please note that all searches should be pertinent to the job that an applicant will be doing.)
Social networking
Social networking is the new dimension of background checks, and websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become well known. We all hope that our current as well as new candidates have enough sense to avoid putting inappropriate content on such public sites. If you are considering using these sites as part of your background check programs you should consider the following:
- Are you 100% sure the content relates to your job applicant. How are you sure?
- What and who is the deciding factor of what is inappropriate content? Who is going to be your "hall monitor"?
- Users of these sites usually secure the content and only allow "friends" to view there full content, leaving you outside their world.
- Such sites are meant for social purposes. People are not always very protective of their user names and passwords. Many people have had their sites "broken into" and accessed by friends, family and past acquaintances. Sometimes this results in putting damaging information about the user on the internet which can go unnoticed and can spread like wildfire.
- If your organization decides to use these searches as part of your hiring decisions, these sites should NOT be viewed before a signed consent form has been completed by the applicant.
- Other data points: Sex offender registries, liens, judgments, UCC filings, professional license verifications and data from the Patriot Act Database can all be used to develop a complete picture of your applicant.